Holland America Complimentary Dining Menus 2022
While I’m not picky when it comes to cruise food (serve me up a giant pile of mashed potatoes and some mediocre German chocolate cake and I’m happy), I think Holland America has some of the best food at sea, including in the main dining rooms and other complimentary (or included with your cruise fare, for the hair splitters among us) restaurants. Here’s what you can expect to find on your next HAL cruise (with slight variations depending on your specific ship and itinerary – not all ships will have every venue and the order of the main dining room dinner menus may differ).
Holland America Breakfast Menu 2022 (Main Dining Room)
I’m a huge fan of Holland America’s breakfast menu in the MDR. I especially love the international and Kristen Kish selections. Also the banana bread french toast! And three different kinds of pancakes! And all the vegetarian options! Even though I had 10 days to try everything on my latest HAL cruise, I still found myself ordering 3+ items each morning. It was impossible to choose just one! Or two! Hit up my Instagram page if you want to see pics of all the breakfast items (@profcruise). Here are a few to get you drooling…
Holland America Lunch Menu 2022 (Main Dining Room)
Living just a block from Pike Place Market in Seattle, I’m not sure how much I appreciate the inclusion of Beecher’s mac & cheese on Holland America’s lunch menu. Not because it’s not delicious and indulgent, but because it reminds me of home. And that home isn’t on a cruise ship. That’s a me problem though – you should totally try it!
Holland America Dinner Menus 2022 (Main Dining Room)
The dinner menus may vary some depending on your particular itinerary, but these should give you a pretty good idea of what to expect, especially on a 7-night sailing. On my last HAL cruise, a 10-night over Christmas and New Years, we had these 7 menus, plus special menus for Christmas Eve, Christmas day, and New Year’s Eve. You can see those three menus if you click HERE.
Holland American Dinner Menu Night 1
Holland American Dinner Menu Night 2
Holland American Dinner Menu Night 3
Holland American Dinner Menu Night 4
Holland American Dinner Menu Night 5
Holland American Dinner Menu Night 6
Holland American Dinner Menu Night 7
Holland America Lido Market Buffet Menus 2022
Holland America has always offered a (mostly) full-service buffet. It’s like they saw Covid coming and figured they’d save themselves a step. That just means the crew hears me say this, A LOT: “One more scoop, please. And make it a Prof. Cruise-sized one!”
In addition to large portions, I also don’t care to see my creamed spinach mate with my mac ‘n cheese and my chana masala. And this whole mess left my garlic roll wondering who the heck her daddy was:
After this, I started asking for separate plates and my fellow diners scored a bonus circus act as I tried balancing en route to my table!
Here are sample buffet menus for breakfast, lunch, and dinner (it’s basically the same menu every day with some individual but similar items swapped in and out). Where are the mashed potatoes though (don’t worry, they did have mashed potatoes on some days)?
Holland America Lido Market Buffet Breakfast Menu 2022
Holland America Lido Market Buffet Lunch Menu 2022
Holland America Lido Market Buffet Dinner Menu 2022
Holland America Dive In Burger Menu 2022
As a vegetarian, Dive In is my favorite burger stand at sea. So many more veggie options have been added over the past few years in addition to the original “Freestyle” portabella mushroom burger! My family and friends report that the non-veggie options (or as they would say, the “real” burgers and dogs) are pretty great too!
Holland America New York Deli & Pizza Menu 2022
Not all HAL ships will have this venue, but if yours does, you’re in for a treat. I recommend a pie with white sauce, arugula, mushrooms, tomato, artichokes, red onion, and red peppers for a snack or second lunch. And one or two of each dessert of course! I’ve never tried the salads, because I find it blasphemous to order salad on a cruise.
Holland America Grand Dutch Cafe Menu 2022
I haven’t tried this yet. If you have, let us know in the comments what you’d recommend.
Holland America Room Service Menu 2022
One of the many things I love about Holland America is that they are one of the few non-luxury lines that still offer complimentary room service (with the exception of a few items noted on the menu). Go HERE if you want to learn 20 other things I love about HAL!
Holland America Room Service Breakfast Card 2022
You can hang this room service card on your door at night to have breakfast delivered the next morning at a time of your choice.
If you’ve cruise Holland America before leave a comment with your favorite complimentary food items. If you haven’t cruised HAL before, you really should! It’s one of my favorite lines and the food is high on my list of reasons why. And with that…
Class Dismissed.
Homework (10 points): Learn the 20 Things I Love about Holland America, read my reviews of the HAL ships I’ve sailed on, and don’t forget to subscribe to the blog to receive new Cruising 101 content direct to your e-mail (scroll up to the top right if on a computer or keep scrolling down if on a mobile device) and follow Prof. Cruise on social media:
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Amazing, thank you so much!
RE: Main Dining Room Menus…. are they the same across all of Holland America ships, regardless of itinerary and dates? If so, this is great information!!! Thank you!!!
RE: Menus for the main dining room…. are they the same for all Holland America Ships, regardless of itinerary and dates? If so, this is wonderful information! Thank you.
Hi Sharon,
They may vary slightly depending on the ship and itinerary and length of the cruise, but they will be very similar. I wouldn’t use these to plan out your evenings (like choosing when to dine at a specialty restaurant based on that night’s MDR menu) because sometimes the order of the menus won’t be the same on your specific itinerary. But these will give you a pretty good idea of what to expect in terms of overall food offerings in the MDR. Hope that helps.
Hi Prof. Cruise, you read right into my plan!
How can I find out which nights will be the Gala nights? If I remember correctly, Gala nights have an upscale menu. Is that right? I called HAL but they couldn’t tell me. Ours is a 7 night cruise continuing on with a land package. Two of the days are cruising (only) without port stops. Might the Gala nights be more likely to be on the cruise (only) days?? Hmmmm…. thank you! Seriously, thank you! I really appreciate all your information!
I can’t say for sure on the Gala nights, but they are usually on sea days and not on the first or last night (although each itinerary is different, so I’d pose the question to a Cruise Critic or Facebook group closer to your sail date to find out from those on a prior sailing of the the same itinerary). Yes, there are usually some “wow” items (lobster, etc) on the Gala night menus. Have a wonderful cruise and land tour!!!